I've watched a few videos now and I'm seeing that everyone seems to use a sword, a bow and spells.

Does this mean that trying to be a pure mage is not viable? (I usually play casters in fantasy MMOs)

In one of the videos I watched it was mentioned that crouch walking lowers your visibility. Is this stealth? Does this mean you can sneak up on people unseen if your crouch walk is high enough? Are there equivalent spells (invisibility/counter)? Are there pickpockets etc?

Are all these afk macros people keep talking about in game binds or are the using gaming keyboards/mice that have built in functions or 3rd party software?

Thanks.

At the moment, being hybrid (having high level in archery, melee and magic skills) is the best way to survive in PvP, so veteran players (which have been playing for a long time so they have had lof of time to level many things) usually take this path because it is the most efficient way to survive and because they have spent lof of time in the game levelling everything. But you can also be viable just with archery, melee, some utility spells (some healing, confusion, eye rot etc which blind the enemy etc) and chosing some specializations (like doing more damage to mages etc). Or you could be a pure mage too, and be viable, though sometimes you will need to do some melee. Hybrid means more options to fight = more options to survive = more time to invest and money too. Pure mage or pure melee/archer can be viable but you will have situations were you lack some options in combat, but if you are skilled you can do it (there is lot of videos or very good PvPers in Darkfall which are not hybrid). Not being hybrid also means you need to spend less time and money to be viable (though eventually if you spend lot of time in the game, just like veterans now, you will become hybrid because you will have many skills maxed).

About crouching and hiding, there is not any skill that makes you invisible, stealth or something like that. One of the best things of Darkfall is that player skills is what matters always, even for hiding. You can sneak up on someone just by using well the terrain and surroindings, not making noise (crouching makes less noise than walking and walking less than running or riding a mount), hiding behind trees, rocks, hiding in shadows, trying to sneak while at night, etc.

Afk macroing means that due to the skill system being a grind (you level a spell or a skill the more you use it agains someone or a mob), people level them using a macro (automated actions using 3rd party programs) while they are not playing (away from keyboard or afk). Recent patches have helped fixing this by increasing a lot the skill gains (they have increased it several times now), and also by adding offline skilling (meditation system, where you can buy meditation points with in game gold and spend them on levelling skills and stats while you are not playing). Some people still macro, but now (compared to when the game released of 1 year ago), the levelling is much much easier, and more if you do lot of PvE and meditation.

One of the greatest things about this game is not being stuck to a certain role and doing what you want. One of the crappiest things about this game is trying to be on top of the food chain by chasing the flavor of the month. It changes from time to time what is the most powerful and you will always see people complaining about the grind because it is a full-loot game so everyone needs a steady income to replace what is lost and there is always a dangling carrot to chase as new things come out but most of the time it seems that the most common complaint about the grind is actually about the game not having enough instant gratification because the PVP is not that often in this game or trying to make excuses from having a record of losing fights.

Darkfall History lesson:

It started out as everyone equal because the grind was so ridiculous until full melee became the best but then quickly turned into bunny-hopping archery being better and then the full-mages dominated everyone with AOE nukes . .. the grind was reduced and melee/archery specs offered with some so powerful that they block magic if used and so the full-mage was not as common for awhile since they were nerfed as well. Melee/archery specs were pretty evenly matched with the mage of everything when it first came out and stayed like that for a few months but then ray spells became instant cast and the grind was reduced so much that everyone could have every buff pretty easily so blocking magic started to become hindering. As they reduced the grind again and again .. . while adding meditation . .. the bar was raised a lot higher in what is considered to be viable. Now adays it is so much easier to get every spell/skill unlocked that the hybrid is much more commonly seen now than ever before. Melee/archery focused toons still rape mages in team PVP as destroyer but not as much in solo PVP anymore unless stats and skills are near max along with expensive gear. It has been a long while since there has been a rebalance because the next expansion is supposedly coming soon with more options and builds than we have seen before and that is why many people are waiting for that.

Although melee is mostly wanted for PVE it is not necessarily needed as much as people say it is for PVP so long as you specialize your spells with jump instead of extra damage or range or casting time or whatever so that if someone is coming in to melee you can keep it ranged by running away while turning to shoot in the air which is the melee/archers worst fear to keep it ranged but if you jump too much it will kill you because while up in the air your characters movements are the most predictable so if you are going to be putting all focus into magic than I would recommend a 1hd melee + shield (for parry only pretty much), practice bunny-hopping and blinding, make a ray macro (very easily done so ask any vet how although its not required it helps), stay close to foliage or lots of things nearby to use as cover if needed, do not let the enemy come any closer for anything because you have to keep it ranged or they will melee you to death. Bows are the only ranged attack under water so either pick one up and do not bring fights to the water. If you are going to play now and want to be pure mage than if it were me I would have a polearm as well just for the whirlwind attack because your goal is to keep melee away and polearm attacks push the enemy a little so its easier. There is an easy macro for whirlwind so you could do it every once in awhile when they come too close and then just switch back to pew pew pew but keep in mind that when this expansion does come out it is possible that robes will block being able to use 2hd melee and bows or something similar. We don't know yet, but sure am excited!!

Originally posted by w4spl3g

I've watched a few videos now and I'm seeing that everyone seems to use a sword, a bow and spells.

Does this mean that trying to be a pure mage is not viable? (I usually play casters in fantasy MMOs)

In one of the videos I watched it was mentioned that crouch walking lowers your visibility. Is this stealth? Does this mean you can sneak up on people unseen if your crouch walk is high enough? Are there equivalent spells (invisibility/counter)? Are there pickpockets etc?

Are all these afk macros people keep talking about in game binds or are the using gaming keyboards/mice that have built in functions or 3rd party software?

Thanks.

its pretty much either, two handed meele weapon and bow, or two handed meele weapon with magic.

pure mage isen't really viabel atm, if your alone or in duos, but it be okay at large fights.

The problem is if you just try and stay out of meele, you just end up showing your back to much witch gives a large damgede increase compared to the front, and its easier doding stuff moving towards people then going in the other direction.

not saying you have to stick to meele once it starts, just stay in it for 1 or how many seconds you think is okay, until you see a chance to back out of it enof to throw a nuke or 2, or a blind to get some distance again.

also their are cases, where its not always the best, for instance in small spaces where you can't get out and you don't think you win the meele fight, or if the guy is geared in some heavry armor, but most off darkfalls population runs around light geared.

for stealth well, theirs no stealth spells but crouch does just as its says, but people do get load lags when other players enter their area, witch you can see if you ping spikes when you get the lag.

for afk macros the term is in darkfall lvling your character while afk, and scripts aren't ingame functions but 3rd party software, and you wont really find any clans without thoes 2 things.

Darkfall doesn't really follow the paradigm that you can only cast spells if you specifically don't learn how to use weapons or archery. The concept is that you can do taht to get a boost on your melee or archery, or you can choose to use magic and specialize in certain schools or spells. The charachters themselves are unique in a total way, not unique between 3 basic archetypes. 

The concept that a fighter, mage, and thief are preset classes with limitations doesn't exist in Darkfall. But there is a huge difference between a cahracter that chooses to level specific spells or abilities with his or her time, and that's more how the uniqueness plays out. Some argue that Darkfall has all carbon copy characters, but, I digress, it is really more like all of them are purely unique. Every player uses slightly different abilities. In every other game, this is not so -- there winds up being only 2 or so builds per class and all the skills used are identical. In this game, very few players have the exact same recipe of skills.

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

Their is pretty much 3 roles being melle/arhcery, hybrid, and mage(which might still have to use melle)

Their is no "flavor of the month" roles, because hybrid has always been shitting on everything. If you want 1v1, hybrid is best.

In group fighting,hybrid is also the most versatile and best.

THats not to say you can't do other things. Their can be healers, but they are also usually hybrids who just happen to be doing that...

Some people try to be pure arhcery, but it really does suck...very badly and is expensive compared to its suckyness. If your in a big group fights, you might be able to get away with doing pure arhcery, but the thing is...you would be so much more effective as hybrid.

Melle/arhcery is pretty effective in large battles tho... if you have some guy to run around you and heal/buff the crap out of you, you can be very effective. But once again...not as effective as simply two hybrids.

Pure mage is good if you have good aim, and in some cases, even if you don't have good aim, but it takes a long time to get their.

So yes, hybrid is the best out of the games 3 roles.

edit: Oh, and as for the expansion, they are making people specialiezed based off what armour they wear. So like robes to be mages, ligt armour(which i'll assume is light melle/primary archery), and heavy armour. That will most likely kill the hybrid thing(which is good, because it's barely an rpg at this point), and allow your pure mage to be even more viable.

So...I say give the game a shot. Ignore fanboys (not saying any names) that are overy optimistic about the game, and haters.  The game is fun, just gotta find a nice group of ppl to play with. If you start in Orklands, I also started a new toon recently out in Orklands where you cna level in peace.

As a solo player, you will fight as an hybrid. If you are in a team, you can take the healer/support role and heal during the whole fight. You can be the guy who always go melee to tank since 2 melee vs 1 melee is bad due to the friendly fire. There are many pvp videos displaying the guy using magic only to win so pure mages are viable. In group fight, since we can use buff others like rapid shot, you can be an archer only and own players that way.

Spells like Wall of Force, rays, fire knock up are the main reason why everyone in darkfall use magic. If it arent for these Crowd control, instant cast type of spells, most players would had chose a specific playstyle in every fight.

Originally posted by 0guz

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

it's like a trailer that looks really cool so you go to the theater to see the film, and its just horrible, and all the trailer showed was the few good clips...

Originally posted by Sorrowho

Originally posted by 0guz

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

it's like a trailer that looks really cool so you go to the theater to see the film, and its just horrible, and all the trailer showed was the few good clips...

Actually its quite the opposite because the person in that video is at the edge of his seat in real life and his heart probably pounded because he knew that if he made one mistake too many than he would have died and lost all of his gear. I cannot think of any movie that made my heart jump like this game has.

Originally posted by Sid_Vicious

Originally posted by Sorrowho

Originally posted by 0guz

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

it's like a trailer that looks really cool so you go to the theater to see the film, and its just horrible, and all the trailer showed was the few good clips...

Actually its quite the opposite because the person in that video is at the edge of his seat in real life and his heart probably pounded because he knew that if he made one mistake too many than he would have died and lost all of his gear. I cannot think of any movie that made my heart jump like this game has.

You assume a lot.

Originally posted by mrcalhou

Originally posted by Sid_Vicious

Originally posted by Sorrowho

Originally posted by 0guz

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

it's like a trailer that looks really cool so you go to the theater to see the film, and its just horrible, and all the trailer showed was the few good clips...

Actually its quite the opposite because the person in that video is at the edge of his seat in real life and his heart probably pounded because he knew that if he made one mistake too many than he would have died and lost all of his gear. I cannot think of any movie that made my heart jump like this game has.

You assume a lot.

You'd be surprised how much this game can get your blood running. It's one among many reasons I maintain a sub.

Originally posted by mrcalhou

Originally posted by Sid_Vicious

Originally posted by Sorrowho

Originally posted by 0guz

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

it's like a trailer that looks really cool so you go to the theater to see the film, and its just horrible, and all the trailer showed was the few good clips...

Actually its quite the opposite because the person in that video is at the edge of his seat in real life and his heart probably pounded because he knew that if he made one mistake too many than he would have died and lost all of his gear. I cannot think of any movie that made my heart jump like this game has.

You assume a lot.

Seriously, im healthy and 1st time i got in a serious pvp moment, i felt like i was about to get an heart attack.

Fear of dying, fear of failing in front of your teamate, the feel to  prove how good you are and not to mention, everything that happen around you. Mix all that and you will feel that big andrenaline rush that you never felt before. I felt the same way when i use to fight in real life in front of other students.

Originally posted by Realbigdeal

 I felt the same way when i use to fight in real life in front of other students.

Playing darkfall is similar to voyeurism?   

Originally posted by Sid_Vicious

Originally posted by Sorrowho

Originally posted by 0guz

you can pvp as pure mage, watch this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGSbPgLfLs

it's like a trailer that looks really cool so you go to the theater to see the film, and its just horrible, and all the trailer showed was the few good clips...

Actually its quite the opposite because the person in that video is at the edge of his seat in real life and his heart probably pounded because he knew that if he made one mistake too many than he would have died and lost all of his gear. I cannot think of any movie that made my heart jump like this game has.

Im not talking about darkfalls combat, I do however find it very unique, and its is one of the reasons why im still playing.

Im talking about the video to pvp as a purge mage, its not gonna go that well, not to mention the guys swords breaks, and the people hes fighting seems to be lower in character devolpment compared to him.

Originally posted by jadedlevir

Their is no "flavor of the month" roles, because hybrid has always been shitting on everything. If you want 1v1, hybrid is best.

Back before the grind was reduced everything was viable so long as you put all of your focus into one thing and you could kill any hybrid since the grind was so extreme the guys who put all their focus in one thing benefitted the most and it took a LOT of macroing just to get one thing to 100. When I rerolled for NA launch I tried to put all of my focus in melee and HP legitimately besides some swimming. I ended up having more HP than most macroers who transfered over and even though my skills were total crap I felt on even grounds or even ahead of most people who came from EU and macroed their characters since the beginning. During that time I loved facing hybrids because they rarely won and it was actually facing another melee/archery build that scared me the most. I shat on the Hybrid for a few months until the patch with the rays came out and the revamped HP formula made me feel like a noob again because suddenly the guys who had all these surging nukes and stuff had as much HP as me and since they macroed they had every skill that I had and plus some so I felt like cannon fodder again.